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A piece of me to share with you…

Monthly Archives: December 2009

Good Morning. I pray that everyone had a really great Christmas and that you received everything that you asked for. Hopefully, one of those things was Salvation.

As we come to the last few yards on 2009, I want to encourage us to get ready for 2010. One of my Mother’s favorite passages of Scripture is Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

1To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

The writer of this book says that in everything that we do, in life and in the world, there is a season. Things go wrong but, things also go right. We’ve all had our share ups and downs and “crazy turn arounds” (I got that from Lou Rawls) but, if you notice, there was always some bad and there was always some good. What I’m trying to say is that if your 2009 has had a lot of bad experiences; job loss, relationship issues, money woes, etc, we can and have to look at 2010 as the season of change. We’ve gone through life’s difficulties, struggles, and a ton of despair in last year. This year:

If you’re broken down, build yourself up

If you’ve cried more tears than a river, start laughing

If you’ve lost loved ones, dance because they are in heaven

If you’ve tossed the stones of goals you’ve set for yourself away, gather them up

If you’ve suffered in silence, it’s DEFININITELY time to speak

If you haven’t hugged someone, embrace them tightly and don’t let go

These are things to look forward to as we get into 2010. Let’s do it!!

Good morning. Hopefully this type of post will not happen too often as I am at a loss for what topic I would like to share with us today. I guess every writer goes through this type of thing so I guess my turn has come. I will be off for the rest of the week and, hopefully, you will be as well. I would like to thank you all for showing me a lot of love over the past few weeks. The reader count jumped to its highest on Monday and I was really surprised and equally humbled that you all have taken the time to read my blog because there are hundreds of blogs that you could be reading aside from mine. I sincerely thank you.

So now that the day is fast approaching, I wanted to wish you all a very MERRY Christmas. I encourage you to, while you are enjoying the season, please remember THE REASON for the SEASON.

As we bend the last corner of 2009, I wanted to share some things we could all use. This verse is short but packs quite a punch. How many of us have been so far down that all we could do is look up? I ask this question because there are too many times that I have been so low, that all I could do was look up. I’m talking to the point where I was flat on my back and had no choice but to LOOK UP. See, we all go though our periods of trials where the battle seems as if it is, literally a lost cause. Amid our hustle and bustle of working and keeping things in perspective; amid trying to live the best we can, according to God’s will and meditating on his word day and night; amid simply trying to keep food on your table, clothes on your back, providing for your children, and even waking up from day-to-day, there has come a time where we have had to just LOOK UP. You may not, or will not, like to admit this to yourself but, I can assure you today that looking up is the only thing we can do at this stage of life. This season that we are in has been intertwined with commercials and commercialism, jingling of bells, the dashing through mountains of snow so much, that the commercials themselves have lost their message, the bells have lost their luster, and the snow has made our hearts so cold that we have forgotten that all we have to do is LOOK UP. I’m encouraging you as well as myself to LOOK UP. That where the help comes from.

I was listening to the Steve Harvey Morning Show on the way to work, as I always do and was interested in the segment he had about sending letters to our Troops that are overseas fighting. He asked his listeners to send emails or post on his website well wishes to the brave men and women defending freedom. The email could be addressed to an individual, Unit, Branch, or all of them in general. Well, I feel compelled to do my own. Granted, I certainly don’t have the star power that Mr. Harvey has nor do I possess the necessary medium to get a letter to all the troops (if wordpress.com could help that would be great) but here is an open letter to a man, woman, son, daughter, father, mother, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, cousin, or even friend that is stationed all over the world. I’m a veteran myself so trust me, this will be appreciated. If you would like, feel free to copy and paste this and send it.

Dearest Protector of Freedom:

This is a very trying time for you, as you are, what may seem like, millions of miles away from those you love and cherish. Well, just to let you know, we feel the same distance from you back here. As you stand ready to complete your mission, please take into consideration the thousands of lives you are protecting, some of which you know and some you don’t. I, for one, sleep well at night knowing that you are there “on the wall” ready to put yourself in harm’s way. There are some back here that may not necessarily agree with the purpose behind your mission, yet you are still there; fighting for their freedom as well. You have an awesome responsibility that you volunteered for and make no mistake, the task that you have before you is not for everybody. It takes a lot of courage to do what you are doing and quite frankly, you’re doing a great job. You may or may not get this letter but, in the event that you, please accept our heartfelt thank you for your service to this nation. You are in our thoughts and prayers and we await your safe return.

It’s Friday and it’s raining. I look at it as a cleansing of all the week’s troubles so that we can enjoy the weekend. Not much going on this weekend except last-minute preparations for Christmas.

One thing I may decide to do very soon is to get a twitter page for my blog. I know it may seem strange, but I guess my reasoning behind it is so that I can actually tweet when my posts are ready to be published as well as leave a Growth Moment tweet or two throughout the course of the day. I’m still contemplating it so I’m asking you, the reader, what you think. Yes your opinions do matter and count because this blog is for all of us. Leave me a comment with your thoughts.

Good morning readers! A nice cool day and a great cup of coffee are things I am really thankful for. I hope you are having a great day as well.

Yesterday, I was outside during lunch and I saw the coolest thing. There was a hawk simply flying along, minding its own business. I’m not sure if it was looking for food or what, but it was just there flying. All of a sudden there were two crows flying along. The mischievous creatures that they are soon found the hawk that was flying along, again, minding its own business. The chase continued, looking much a like a really good aerial sequence from Top Gun. The hard banks, left and right, along with the climbs and dives would have made even Maverick and Iceman a tad jealous. Well as the “dogfight” continued, I noticed that they were all coming close to the tree line. The hawk made a serious dive to escape but those crows were hot on its tail. Here we have it. Two birds, known for scavenging were chasing another known as a bird of prey. As they all continued to dive, they disappeared behind the tree line.

Here’s where it gets interesting…

The crows came up from behind the tree line as fast as their wings could take them, only this time, the hawk was in pursuit! One crow managed to make a hard right to extend and escape but his wing man, probably the instigator was not as lucky. He tried to out maneuver the hawk, “caw-ing” frantically (probably for help) but the hawk effortlessly matched his each and every twist and turn. They soon after disappeared from my view.

I said all of that to point us to our Growth Moment for today. A lot of times we have problems or obstacles in our way or, in certain aspects, tend to chase us around. The good news is that we have the right and the ability to meet them head on if we turn around and face them. Remember the hawk? Apparently, he grew tired of having his problem keeping him from what he was set out to do. Instead of continuously being chased by the crows, he turned and faced what was keeping him from his goal and went after them. He saw his chance to let the crows know, “You will not keep me from doing what I need to do. If you want to bother me, you’re in for a fight so BRING IT! Keep in mind that God made me who I am to do what I was created to do.” Do you see how this works? You were created by God to do what you He created you to do so, if there is something attempting to stop you, remember what the hawk did. NOTE: There was one crow that escaped which means he may come back. I’m sure the hawk will be ready. Will you?

Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

I’m particularly fond of this passage because this is my youngest son’s middle name. We also just celebrated his third birthday on Friday. It’s been three years since God blessed us with him and He keeps blessing us to this day. I usually don’t say too many things about my children because I do want to respect their privacy but, on certain instances such as this, Dad gets to brag a little bit. He definitely a lot of my qualities in addition to my very handsome features (if you saw him, you’d understand..lol) but what I admire most about him is his musical ability. I’ve played drums since age seven and the romance is still there. However, my son seems to be gravitating toward the guitar. He got a toy guitar for one of his birthday gifts and even though the sound may not be as harmonious to some, you have to see the concentration on his face. Let him tell it, he is really making a hit! He also loves to sing while perfecting his skills on the six-string (the singing came from my side of the family but TOTALLY skipped me…lol). I really love that he sings the songs from his daycare, which are mostly Christian based because he attends a church daycare. When I tell you he sings, he sings LOUD. I’m praying that we see a future Minister of Music come forth. Well that takes care of today. If you’re up north, stay warm Until next time…